1986 SportCraft - a new project

Now that my dad and I are fishing almost every weekend, I have decided it's time to drag his boat out of storage and get it back in the water as well. We have so much fun on my little boat that we need something bigger so we can drag more of the family along.

This was our family's boat. I learned to drive it when I was 16 and we spent a alot of time at the Jupiter sandbar and Peanut Island, hydrosliding on the lox river and generally having fun.

Now, My kids are 12 and 16 and it's time to drag them around behind the boat.  ;D

Here's what we are starting with:


Underneath the dust, the boat is nearly perfect. Some of the plastic is rotting and brittle. The coffin cover over the fuel tank is soft but not cracked.



Tons of room inside

 

This thing is even clean down in the bilge, only thing down there is years of dust.



Here's the scary part... You might want to look away it is kind of ugly:







I told you it was scary.

The engine is an OMC 143 on a seadrive bracket. With an unlimited budget, I'd toss everything and throw an armstrong bracket and a new yamasuzimercenrude somethingorother on it. Can't swing it this year.

So, I am hoping I can clean this beast up and get it running without tooo many tears. Wish me luck.

 

Ok so, after some careful negotiations with my Wife, we decided to relocate the boat to my driveway so I could work on it whenever I had the time. This took quite a bit of finesse but it worked. Not sure what she was expecting, but she was fairly relieved when she saw the boat all cleaned up and in person. Now the work can begin.

I began the process with a thorough scrubbing and I am very pleased to find that the fiberglass is in excellent condition. I don't think this boat has been waxed in 12 or 13 years. That is high on my list.

Here she is at home:



Ignore the white Jeep, I sold that to the neighbor so my wife would be happier about having two boats at the house...

 

Started the troubleshooting process last night. As I mentioned, it is very clean but it has some nagging issues. I think I discovered the root cause of most of the issues.

I worked to understand the wiring and connect the new ignition switch. I found that nearly every wire that was crimped with a standard butt connector had corroded and was ready to break off at the crimp.

Testing the resistance and continuity with a meter revealed that many of the important wires were fine. Especially the main harness from under the console to the engine.

Using the diagrams found here:

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=439997

I have the ignition all set and now I can work on cleaning up the wiring of the instrument cluster and switch panel.

Yuck, scotchlocks in a marine environment. No wonder everything electrical is touchy on this boat.



While I work on that, I need to also replace some corroded wires in the relay box as well.



I have a recycle bin of old wire and misc stuff that I removed, some of which will not be going back.

 

Oh and yes, I have already hit my head on the roof while walking around inside the boat. 

[smiley=headbang2.gif]

 

I appreciate the offer for help. I may need it. If nothing else, some snook fishing tips. I want to catch some snook on the fly rod this year.

The boat has been in the family since '88. Life got in the way and my Dad kinda just let it sit in a friends shed.

I totally agree with what you said about the motor. I am going to attack the project with that in the back of my mind.

The corrosion on the outside of the motor looks bad but I am hoping it's superficial. The key elements that make up the sea drive and the special one off items all seem to be intact. Fingers crossed on the motor being ok inside. It was parked because the axle on the trailer broke, the motor ran fine.

Trim, tilt, steering, controls all work. Wiring harness isn't corroded etc... I'm going to pull the plugs and spray the cylinders with some two stroke oil and turn it over manually before I start trying to start it. I need to replace the fuel lines and clean the tank out etc...

Aside from the intake and some basic parts it's just a 1.8 looper motor right?

 

Well the good news is that despite the horrible outward appearance of the motor, it turns over by hand with the plugs out. Plugs came out without any trouble and I could turn it over by hand. No horrible noises. That flywheel sure is ugly though. The coils for the magneto and their related parts don't look bad at all. I was worried about that.

Starter not so much... Pretty sure it's done but we'll see.

 

I haven't forgotten about this project... Nothing picture worthy about rewiring.

Carbs are out and NASTY!!! Pix to come. In the meantime picture 4 plastic carbs covered in last years Thanksgiving gravy, giblets and all.

Strolled into Marine Parts Outlet in Stuart and in less than 5 min I had the rebuild kits I needed. No hassle or anything. Between them and Lewis Marine this job is much easier. Hopefully the carbs will be back in today and I can see where I stand.

IF it runs on a test tank, it's on to replacing every rubber fuel line in the hull and cleaning out the fuel tank. I really hope it's almost empty.